Baby Magic
by theshadowcat
Summary: Liz and Hellboy are having a baby! The tenth installment in the 'Magic' series. Edited and Complete. Please R


**Author's Note: **So here it is, at long last. Liz and Hellboy are having a baby.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Scrabble or anything from the Hellboy universe. I only own the characters from my twisted imagination and I sure as heck am not making any money off of this. Though I am holding Abe hostage in my bathtub. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

* * *

August 6th

Maggie wakes to the feeling of a cool, moist body pressed against her back. She reluctantly opens an eye and sees a saltine cracker hovering in front of her face. With a sound akin to a growl, she opens her mouth and lets him feed her crackers and ginger ale.

After several minutes of being fed this stuff, she's had enough and indicates that she's done by burying her face in her pillow. He quietly puts the food items away and then, after returning to the bed, begins to rub her back. Eventually she lets out a huge yawn and a stretch, rolling over onto her back she ends up looking up into those incredible deep blue eyes.

"How are you feeling?" he asks softly.

"Ok," she answers as she rolls into his arms and tucks her head under his chin. "But I know something that will make me feel even better."

"And what would that be?" he inquires with a smile, already knowing the answer.

Instead of replying, she starts to run her hands over and kiss areas that are guaranteed to get a reaction, and a reaction they do get. He spends quite a bit of time making her feel a lot better. When he's finally done, she's sweaty and out of breath with a look of pure bliss on her face.

"How was that?" he whispers into her hair as they do a bit of post coital cuddling.

"Wonderful," she mumbles back, gladly letting his body cool her overly warm skin.

After several minutes of snuggling, and hoping the world has forgotten about them, someone bangs on the outside door. With a grumble and a sigh, they drag themselves out of bed and get dressed. When Abe finally unlocks the door to find John waiting there with Maggie's breakfast, she's just finishing donning that day's clothing.

"Morning, you two," John greets way too cheerfully as he comes in. "Where would you like your breakfast?"

"On the table will be fine, thank you, John," Maggie replies as she starts to pull on her work boots.

John leaves after depositing the tray where indicated and Abe shuts the door behind the agent a moment later. She sits down to her breakfast of whole wheat toast, fruit salad, orange juice, milk and tea. Without a single word, she sits and begins to eat with gusto. He steals a piece of melon before diving back into his tank, barely making a ripple as he does so. When she's nearly done, his head reemerges from the water.

"What do you have planned for today?" he asks while treading water.

"Same old, same old," she responds as she sits back with her tea. "I'll take care of Magick and then see what else needs to be done around the ranch. Usually cleaning, like mucking the stalls and stuff."

"You're not cleaning the kitty litter boxes are you?" he demands.

"Nope, Doug gets that lucky job," she answers with a smirk. "He refuses to let Helen or me even in the building with the cats. I swear he thinks the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis is just going to jump out and get us."

"It's better to be safe than sorry," he states. "Are you planning on doing any gardening?"

"Probably," she replies as she finishes her tea. "And yes, I'll wear gloves and wash my hands afterwards and make sure not to touch my face until I'm done."

"Good girl."

"If I sit up and beg do I get a treat?" she asks suggestively, getting up from her seat.

"Maybe tonight," he chuckles. "But only if you're good."

"What if I'm bad?" she questions with a leer as she steps to the edge of the tank.

"Then you might have to be spanked," he responds as he gets out of the tank.

"Hmm, decisions, decisions," she grins up at him. "I'll have to get back to you on that one."

With that, she gives him a quick kiss and gentle push back into the tank where he lands with barely a splash. She then heads back through the bedroom to the bathroom to finish getting ready for 'work.' When she's finally done, she comes back through the tank room, but before she can leave, he comes back out of his tank to give her a proper goodbye kiss. Several minutes later, a very damp Maggie staggers downstairs and heads out for the day.

* * *

Many hours later, Maggie returns to the bureau with few more items from her house. As she trudges through the halls, she notices that it's pretty quiet this evening. Figuring that everyone is just off getting their dinner, she continues her trek towards the library.

When she enters, she sees Guillermo and Liz playing cards off to one side. But it's the empty tank that really gets her attention. She stands there and stares at it for a couple of minutes until she's shocked out of her revelry by a hand on her shoulder.

"They left this morning shortly after you left," Guillermo tells her after she turns and looks at him. "They've gone to Romania. We're not sure when they'll be back."

"Oh," is all she can manage to say.

"They'll be back soon, I'm sure," he tries to assure her. "After all, Hellboy doesn't want to miss the birth of his baby now does he?"

"No, I guess not," she replies with a weak smile.

"I was just about to order dinner to be brought down," he informs her. "Would you care to join us?"

"That would be great," she answers. "I'm just going to put these things up in my room and get cleaned up. I'll be back in a few minutes."

With that, she puts actions to words and heads upstairs. Around fifteen minutes later she comes downstairs with her wet hair hanging loosely behind her. Liz and Guillermo have already cleared the table they were playing at and are busy setting the table with the place settings that were brought down with the food.

A Hellboy worthy bowl of spaghetti is placed in the middle of the table along with a salad, garlic bread and steamed veggies. They eat and talk about various things of no great importance, but mostly they avoid talking about the danger Hellboy and Abe are getting into. Guillermo and Maggie finish their meals and watch in amazement as Liz helps herself to the last of the pasta and bread, her third helping.

Guillermo and Maggie silently clear the table as Liz continues to consume her meal. After she's finally done, she looks around at the empty bowls and gets a rather disappointed look on her face.

"Didn't they send down dessert?" she asks.

Guillermo and Maggie stare at each other, completely stunned looks on their faces. Then they both smile and try to contain their chuckles as Maggie removes the last of the dishes from the table and onto the cart that they came in on.

"I'll go see what they have in the kitchen," Maggie offers as she starts to push the cart towards the door.

Guillermo holds the door for her as she leaves. Once in the kitchens, she empties the cart with the help of the kitchen staff that's still on duty and then goes in search of dessert. When Maggie returns to the library, Guillermo and Liz are setting up a Scrabble board.

"Care to join us?" Guillermo asks.

"What'd you bring?" Liz inquires at the same time.

"I'd love to play," Maggie answers Guillermo before turning to Liz. "I got most of a French apple pie, some vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce."

Maggie sets the tray she was carrying down on the desk and starts to serve up the dessert. Half an hour later, Guillermo has thoroughly trounced both of the women, the pie is completely gone and Liz is finishing off the carton of ice cream. After putting the carton down, Liz looks around the library, spots something and scowls at it.

"That lamp would look much better over there," she states just before she manages to haul herself out of her chair.

She wanders over to the offending lamp, unplugs it and waddles off with it. All Maggie and Guillermo can do for several moments is sit there and silently laugh as Liz proceeds to start rearranging the furniture. After they finally manage to get themselves under control, Maggie collects the dishes and containers from dessert as Guillermo begins to put away the Scrabble board and tiles.

After taking everything back to the kitchen, she reenters the library to find Liz in full nesting mode and Guillermo is long gone. Deciding it's safer to be elsewhere, she wishes Liz a good night and heads up the stairs, quietly chucking to herself. But once she's turned off the light and crawled into bed, she's painfully reminded that Abe is gone and she silently cries herself to sleep.

* * *

August 7th

Maggie wakes to gritty eyes and an unhappy stomach. She knows that Abe keeps the ginger ale and crackers in a cabinet in his room, but it would require standing up to get them, so she continues to lie there in misery. After resting there for some time, wallowing in self pity, she has no choice but to get up and barely makes it to the bathroom in time.

After finally getting cleaned up and dressed, she decides to go in search of breakfast. Soon, she's wandering the halls until an agent points her in the direction of the cafeteria. When she finally finds it, she takes one step inside and immediately dashes back out with her hand over her mouth and nose. The smell of bacon grease and fried food is more than her tummy can take.

With a resigned sigh, she makes her way back to her room, grabs her things and heads for her car. Once she gets back to the house, she makes herself some tea and finds a slightly stale bagel for breakfast. When she's done, she heads down to the ranch to face a day that she really doesn't want to deal with.

* * *

As it approaches dinner time, and the animals have been watered and fed for the evening, she must now figure out what to do with herself. She doesn't want to go back to the bureau and face that empty tank, but she doesn't want to waste time here if he's already back. So this leaves her with only one course of action. Call Uncle.

"Hola, Maggie," Guillermo greets when he picks up the phone.

"Hola, Uncle," she responds, noting the slight strain in his voice. "Has Abe returned yet?"

"No, why?" he answers.

"I was just wondering if I should just stay here or not," she replies her heart sinking at the news.

"Please come back," he nearly begs.

"But if Abe's not there…," she starts.

"Please, Maggie," he interrupts. "Come back. I need your help."

"Ok, ok, just let me get cleaned up and I'll be there as soon as I can," she assures him.

"Thank you, Maggie," he says with a sigh of relief.

Nearly an hour later, Maggie pulls into the garage at the bureau and is met by a very anxious Guillermo. As soon as she emerges from her car, he grabs her hand and starts to drag her into the bowels of the bureau.

Several twisting passages and one very confused Maggie later, they stop outside Liz's bedroom door. Maggie can hear moaning from inside and she instinctively takes a step back. Guillermo grabs her arm and pulls her back towards the closed door.

"Her contractions started around lunch time and Hellboy isn't back yet," he explains. "I need you to go in there and try to help her."

"ME?" she all but shrieks. "What about you? You've been through this before, not me."

"Forty-five years ago a man took his wife to the hospital, they put her on a gurney and wheeled her away while he went and sat in the waiting room until the nurse came in and told him if he had a boy or a girl," he explains rather heatedly. "I have no idea what to do."

They stand there and stare at each other until another moan with a sob can be heard through the door. With a sigh, she turns towards the metal slab in front of her not entirely sure what to do.

"Has a doctor examined her?" she asks.

"Si, the doctor was here about half an hour ago," he answers. "She's only about 3 centimeters."

"Does Hellboy know?" she enquires.

"No, we can't seem to get through to them," he replies. "You're stalling."

"Damn, straight!" she nearly shouts. "What makes you think that I know what to do?"

"You're a woman, it's instinctual," he states with a shrug. "And since when have you started swearing?"

"Instinctual my foot," she snarls. "I have no clue what to do."

"The doctor said we should get her to walk around, it'll help the labor progress," he tells her.

"So why aren't you doing that?" she demands.

"Because I'm not a steady leaning post for her when she has a contraction," he replies. "She needs to have someone to lean on."

Another couple of minutes of staring at one another is interrupted once more by moaning. With a growl, she goes up to the door, softly knocks and then quietly opens the door.

"Liz? Honey, are you ok?" she asks as she sticks her head in the room and sees Liz lying on the bed with her back to the door.

"My husband's half way around the world and I'm doing this all on my own," Liz sniffs as she turns red rimmed eyes towards the other woman. "I'm scared."

"Oh, Liz, you're not alone," Maggie immediately responds as she crosses the room and sits on the bed next to the distraught woman. "I'm here and I'll help you any way I can."

"Fine, you have this thing," Liz grumbles.

"Sorry, that's a bit beyond my abilities," Maggie chuckles. "Come on; let's get you on your feet. The doctor says that walking will help."

"Help what?" Liz demands. "Make the baby come sooner? I don't want it to come sooner; I want Red to be here for it."

"Uncle says that they're on their way," Maggie tries to assure her. "They should be here soon."

"You're lying," she snarls, sitting up.

"Yes, but at least you're now upright," Maggie replies. "Now let's get you on your feet."

Liz only puts up a token fight as Maggie pulls the pregnant woman to her feet. After finding some slippers for her to protect her feet from the cold hard floor, they leave the room and begin to wander the halls.

About every four to five minutes, Liz needs to stop and leans heavily on Maggie as she breathes her way through another contraction. After about an hour after they started their wanderings, Guillermo finds them in the middle of yet another contraction and he's carrying a bottle of water.

"The doctor wants to see her whenever you can get her down to the medical bay," he tells Maggie in a hushed voice as he hands her the water bottle. "She also wants you to make sure that she gets plenty of fluids."

"Ok, thanks, Uncle," Maggie quietly responds as she takes the bottle.

When the contraction ends, Maggie opens the bottle and hands it to Liz as they start to make their way down to the infirmary. It takes nearly twice as long to get there as it normally would, but when they do get there one of the nurses ushers them into a room. She then hands Liz one of those way too embarrassing gowns and tells her to strip, put the thing on and then get into the bed.

Several minutes after Liz lies down, the nurse comes back in, straps two wide elastic bands around her large belly, plugs a couple small disks into a machine next to the bed and then puts one disk under each of the bands. After adjusting the bands and the disks, the nurse pushes a few buttons on the machine, puts a sheet over Liz and heads for the exit.

"Excuse me, but I thought the doctor wanted to see Liz," Maggie says, a little bit confused and a whole lot miffed.

"The doctor will be in in a few minutes," the nurse replies just before she disappears through the door.

Maggie throws a withering look at the door and then goes to find a chair to sit on. She has to actually leave the room before finding one and by the time she does, Liz is going through another contraction. The small woman's features are screwed up with pain and apprehension. Maggie quickly sets the chair down next to the bed, takes Liz's hand in her own and starts stroking her raven hair. The instant Maggie touches her; Liz noticeably relaxes and gets through the next contraction with moans that are slightly quieter.

"My back hurts," Liz whispers when the contraction is over as she looks up at Maggie. "Rub my back please?"

"Ok," Maggie agrees.

Maggie stands and goes around the bed to get access to Liz's back. She tries to gently rub at first, but that doesn't do it. Maggie starts to rub harder and harder until she's grinding her fists and nearly putting all of her weight into Liz's back. Only then is Liz happy.

About twenty minutes later, the doctor finally comes in to examine Liz. After doing things to the pregnant woman that leaves Maggie feeling dizzy, the doctor pulls down the sheet and takes off her rubber gloves. She goes over and examines a strip of paper that the machine Liz is attached to is slowly spitting out, something that Maggie had totally missed before.

"Well, Liz, your contractions seem to be progressing nicely and the baby's doing well," the doctor starts. "But your still only five centimeters, so I want you to get into an upright position again. Maybe do some more walking."

"I don't want to walk anymore," Liz moans. "My back is killing me."

"In that case, why don't you get in the shower?" the doctor suggests. "The heat will help relax the muscles."

"I don't want to go all the way back to my room," Liz whines.

"Then don't," the doctor replies as she points to a door across the room. "The bathroom is through there and there's a bench in there for you to sit on too. There's a call button in there if you need any help. Does that sound good?"

"Yea," Liz mutters as another contraction over comes her.

Maggie goes back to trying to drive her fists through Liz's back for the next minute. When the contraction is over, the doctor turns off the machine and removes the straps from Liz's belly. Maggie helps Liz move into the bathroom and gets her situated on the little bench. Maggie turns on the water and the hot water is pretty quick in arriving. She adjusts it to a more comfortable level, pulls the shower head off of the wall and then starts to let the water course down Liz's back.

"Too cold," Liz complains.

Maggie turns up the heat, but it's still too cold. After several minutes of adjusting the water, Maggie finally gets it the right temperature. It's so hot that Maggie can barely touch it, but for Liz it's pure heaven. Within a very short period of time, the bathroom becomes very hot and humid, and Maggie starts feeling a bit light headed. Just when she's sure that she's about to fall down, there's a knock at the door.

"How are things in there?" Guillermo calls through the door.

"Uncle, thank god you're here," Maggie cries with relief. "Get in here."

"Oh, um, well, uh," he stammers.

"Guillermo Chavez you get your butt in here or so help me I will make your life a miserable living hell," she hisses at the door.

"When did you start using such language?" he demands as he opens the door and gets hit by a wall of steam.

"Just get over here and pour the water down Liz's back," she orders. "I need to go sit down."

"When did you last eat?" he asks, looking at her critically.

"I don't know," she answers. "I had a snack around three I guess."

"Ah mierda," he mutters. "I'm sorry, Maggie. I'll go get you something to eat…"

"No you won't," she snarls quietly, trying not to disturb Liz. "I can go get my own food. Now get over here."

After a few more attempts to get out of taking care of Liz, Guillermo reluctantly comes over and takes the shower head from Maggie. Fortunately for his sensibilities, Liz is positioned in such a way that he can't see much of her naked body.

Maggie staggers out of there and goes off in search of food. Nearly an hour later, she comes back in feeling much better. She's also now dressed in just a tank top and shorts and her hair is pulled up into a bun on top of her head. When she goes in, Guillermo is sweating profusely, and looking a bit green around the edges.

"I think we should take shorter breaks," she suggested. "Go get something cold to drink. And when you come back, please bring something for Liz. And some lighter clothing would be good too."

"But…but…I…she's…," he stutters.

"If you think you're leaving me in this sauna all by myself, you've got another thing coming," she warns.

"But I don't know what to do," he states, still trying to get out of this.

"Seems you were doing just fine a minute ago," she points out.

"Fine, I'll be back in half an hour," he grumbles as he turns to go. "When did you turn into your grandmother?"

"The instant you dumped Liz in my lap," she quietly grouses at him.

With a resigned sigh, he goes off in search of something cold to drink, cooler clothes and a drink for Liz. After his return, they set up a pattern of every half hour one of them relieving the other while Liz sits there, softly moaning through her contractions. This goes on for a few hours until suddenly there's a change.

It's Maggie's turn for a break and she's been looking for something with a lot of sugar. It's almost midnight and she's exhausted, so now she's in search of a sugar rush. She's just finishing a rather large glass of orange juice when Guillermo sends her a surge of power that nearly knocks her off of her feet. As it is, she's left wearing what was left in the glass.

After spending a few moments trying to blow the juice out of her nose, she wipes her face clean with a nearby towel. Ignoring her now wet and soon to be sticky clothes, she runs back to the medical bay to find Guillermo in a near panic.

"What's the matter?" she asks.

"She's not moaning like she used to," he answers. "Something's changed. And I saw some blood on the shower floor."

As if on cue, Liz makes a deeper, more guttural groan than she's made before. Maggie goes to look at her and Liz has a look of utmost concentration on her face. It also looks like she's now tightening her muscles instead of relaxing.

"Go get the doctor," she orders. "I'll get her out of the shower and into bed."

Guillermo doesn't hesitate as he leaves as quickly as he can. Maggie has her hands full as she turns off the water and then has to get Liz out of the shower, dried off and into the bed. Somehow she manages it, though she's not sure how she did it, just as the doctor comes in.

"Ok, Liz, lets have a look at you," the doctor states in a happy voice and in Maggie's way of thinking, way too cheerful for this time of night. "Could you lie on your back for me please?"

Liz finally manages to comply with the doctor just as she pulls up the sheet. The doctor examines Liz for a few moments and then pulls the sheet back down.

"Ok, Liz, you're fully dilated, so when you get the urge to push, go ahead and do so," the doctor tells her as she pushes a button on the wall.

A few seconds later, the nurse comes in and looks at the doctor expectantly.

"Please prepare for delivery," the doctor requests as she starts to pull on her scrubs over her regular clothing.

The nurse comes over to the bed and starts to make adjustments to it. First the back is raised, then about eighteen inches of the foot of the bed is lowered and finally the stirrups are brought up with Liz's legs being put in them a moment later. The doctor finishes getting her gloves on with a snap.

For the next hour or so, they all encourage Liz to push with the contractions. When she isn't holding Liz's hand and pulling a leg back, Maggie feeds her ice chips between pushes. The doctor gets a puzzled look on her face, and just before the next contraction, she reaches in and feels the baby's head.

Liz pushes for all she's worth while the doctor's hand is still inside of her. As Liz leans back after her latest attempt to bring her baby into the world, the doctor pulls her hand out and has a defeated look on her face.

"What is it?" Maggie demands. "What's the matter?"

"The baby's not descending," the doctor answers as she strips the gloves off. "It looks like we'll have to do a C-section."

* * *

August 8th, 12:02 AM

"I can't believe we went all that way for nothing," Hellboy grumbles as he chomps on his half smoked cigar.

"Can't say as I'm happy with it either, Red," Abe concedes. "But I don't think that young man will be pulling any more stunts like that again."

"Damn right he won't," Hellboy growls. "He does and I'll tear him a new one."

"Still you have to admit it was rather ingenious the way he set everything up to look like there were spirits in the forest," Abe states.

"No, it wasn't," Red snarls. "He had the town's folk scared half to death. People were convinced that some local legend was coming true and all of the babies were going to be stolen away."

"I didn't say it was smart," Blue responds. "But from a technical point of view, it was really quite cleaver."

"Yea, real cute," HB growls again. "Drags us half way across the world and Liz could have the baby at any time. Hell, she could have already have had it and I will have missed it because some twerp decided he wanted to get some attention."

Before Abe can respond, Manning wanders into the area.

"Ok, you two, we're going to be landing soon, so get ready," he orders.

"Dr. Manning, has the radio been fixed?" Abe asks.

"I'm afraid not," Manning answers. "All we've got is the radio to contact the tower and that's it. But we'll be back on the ground soon and then we can call the bureau to let them know that we're back."

"Thank you," Abe responds as he pulls himself out of his tank.

Manning wanders off and Abe proceeds to get dressed while Hellboy watches. A short time later, they're in the cargo area waiting to land. Soon after the plane comes to a stop, they can hear the engines powering down and a few minutes later, the back ramp is lowered.

The hot, humid air mixed with the smell of jet fuel and over heated tarmac is nearly overwhelming to Hellboy, but he ignores it and starts to head down the ramp. Just as the steps onto the asphalt, John comes running up to him.

"What's the hurry, Boy Scout?" Red asks.

"We finally got through to the bureau," John starts.

"Oh, dear," Abe gasps. "We need to hurry."

"What's going on?" Hellboy demands. "What's wrong?"

"It's Liz, she's gone into labor and she's about to give birth," John tells him.

"Ah, crap," Hellboy swears as he sprints for the garbage truck with Abe on his heels.

The door is quickly closed and they begin to move out at faster than recommended speeds.

"Damn! I knew it! I KNEW IT!" Red yells as he paces in the small space.

"Now, Red, we may still get there in time," Abe tries to console his friend.

"Just when she needed me most, and I wasn't there for her," Hellboy nearly sobs as he stops his pacing and leans his head against the wall. "I failed her, Blue. I failed her."

* * *

"No, I don't want to be cut open," Liz whimpers as she grabs a hold of Maggie's arm with strength that would make Hellboy proud. "Please don't let them cut me open."

"Liz…," Maggie starts, not sure what to say to the nearly panicked woman who's now cutting off the blood supply to her fingers.

"Liz, the baby can't make it out the normal way," the doctor tries to explain. "We're going to have to take him or her out surgically."

"Why can't the baby come out normally?" Guillermo asks, shocking the women in the room.

Maggie had totally forgotten that he was still there.

"The head may be too big to come through," the doctor states.

"Hm," he hums as he moves closer to the bed. "Liz may I touch you? I would like to know what that little one is up to."

"What good will that do?" the doctor demands.

"Call it a scientist's curiosity," he replies with a smile as he steps up to the bed.

"If you think I'm going to just let you examine her…," the doctor starts.

"I have no intention of doing anything invasive," he assures her. "I just want to lay my hand on her stomach. May I do so, Liz?"

Liz nods her agreement just as another contraction over comes her.

"Feather breathe," the doctor orders. "Blow like there's a feather trying to land on your lips and you're trying to keep it away."

Liz gives short little pants as the contraction gets stronger and Guillermo lays his hand over her lower abdomen. He stands there for some time with his eyes half closed, 'examining' the baby. When the contraction is over, Liz leans back panting, looking at Guillermo with pleading eyes.

"The reason the baby's not coming down is because his head is in the wrong position," he states. "I do know enough about birthing to know that the baby should be facing downwards and the crown of the head should come out first. Well, this little guy is facing up and trying to come out forehead first."

"How do you know that?" the doctor demands.

"Maybe I'll explain later, but right now I want to see if I can get this little guy back where he belongs," Guillermo replies. "Liz, will you let me try?"

"Yes," she hisses as the discomfort starts to get to her.

About ten minutes, a lot of screaming and two contractions later, Guillermo is still working on getting the baby properly positioned.

"I really disapprove of this," the doctor grumbles. "It would be easier and safer if we just went in and surgically removed the baby."

"Doctor, please give him a chance," Maggie tries to sooth.

"I wish Red were here," Liz whimpers for what feels to be the hundredth time.

Before Maggie can respond, a distant noise catches her attention. She tilts her head to better catch the sound and a second later, a vibration through the floor confirms her suspicions.

"You just may get your wish," Maggie whispers in Liz's ear.

Brown eyes stare into hazel for several seconds before everyone else can hear the sound of someone very large running down the hall at full speed. A few moments later, Hellboy comes crashing into the room with Abe right behind him. Guillermo looks up from what he's doing and sees the merman.

"Abe, please come help me convince this child to be a bit more cooperative," Guillermo requests.

"Certainly," Abe agrees as he quickly removes his gloves. "May I touch you, Liz?"

Liz nods and Abe's hands join Guillermo's on her belly as Hellboy joins Maggie in bringing comfort to the soon to be mother. Another contraction, an ear piercing scream and a few more minutes later, Guillermo and Abe pull back with smiles on their faces.

"That should do the trick," Guillermo states happily. "Doctor, you may want to get ready to catch."

The doctor starts to protest until she notices Liz having another contraction and the head starting to crown. She doesn't even have time to put on fresh gloves because after only a couple of grunts, she's standing there holding a wailing red baby complete with tail. After standing there for a few moments, completely stunned, the doctor gently places the screaming infant on its mother's stomach.

"It's a boy," Hellboy proudly announces. "We have a baby boy."

"Disappointed?" Liz asks worriedly.

"No, oh god, no," he assures her as he gently kisses the top of her head.

"I don't think we're needed here anymore," Maggie whispers to Guillermo and Abe as she shepherds them out the door.

The three of them head back towards the living area, tired but happy. They say their goodnights to each other and Abe leads his wife back up to their rooms.

Once there, he helps her to clean the sticky orange juice residue off of her front. Then he gets her dressed before pulling her back to the tank room. She's too tired to object to sleeping in her bathing suit as he slips the mask over her face and then pulls her into the water with him. Within moments, they're both fast asleep.

When they wake in the morning they find a note taped to the tank window.

Trevor Abraham Broom

August 8th, 2006

1:12 AM

10 lbs. 2 ozs. 22 inches body 6 inches tail

_Fini_


End file.
